U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, today issued the following statement after the U.S. Supreme Court issued a stay to block the Obama administration’s rule to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from existing power plants:

“Today, the U.S. Supreme Court took an unusual step in a series of related cases – including one brought by 29 States and state agencies – by blocking the Obama administration’s most controversial climate regulation.

“This major rule would increase costs for consumers, put at risk the reliability of our electric grid with little benefit for the environment, threaten livelihoods in communities across the nation, and recast the regulation of our power sector.

“The Court is to be commended for stepping in to allow the many legal challenges to the rule to go forward in an orderly way.

“Without the Court’s action today, people who keep the lights on in the lower 48 would have been faced with irrevocable and costly decisions to close or retrofit power plants before opponents of the rule even had their day in court.”

Murkowski, Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, successfully fought to exempt Alaska from the climate rule stayed today by the Supreme Court.